15-Minute Sesame Roasted Snap Peas

If you’re looking for to prepare peas in a low effort (but slightly more effort than eating them raw) and delicious dish, these sesame roasted snap peas are for you! Rich, savory, and nutty, they are surprisingly addictive and a perfect way to add the taste of Spring to your table (no matter the season). I intended them as a side dish, but the first time we made them they ended up just being dinner- just because we couldn’t stop snacking on them long enough to make anything else.

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The Beauty of Snap Peas

Snap peas are my favorite type of peas, because you can eat the entire pod. This not only makes your workload a lot lighter in preparing them, but it reduces the amount of the vegetable you throw away. By far my biggest pet peeve with this is artichokes- I know you can scrape the meat of the petals with your teeth, but it’s a lot of work for very little reward. And try as I might, I have not yet thought of any other use for artichoke petals- if you’ve thought of anything, please leave it in the comments because my teeth are tired of scraping! Fortunately, despite that aside, we are not actually cooking artichokes today, we’re still on peas. All snap peas need is the top pinched off, and the thick spine peeled away. And bam- almost no time or waste, prep is done!

If you also don’t like throwing away unused vegetable bits, check out this post on how to use edible (but less frequently used) vegetable parts.

Sesame Paste vs. Tahini

This dish gets it’s flavor from the sauce, which is primarily sesame paste. We got the sesame paste originally because my boyfriend had been told it was a good way to improve ramen broth (and it was!). We didn’t actually know much about it, we just grabbed some off the shelf and moved on. When we got home and opened it, a familiar smell greeted me- “You know, we already had tahini.” But Chinese sesame paste is not quite the same as tahini (generally found in Mediterranean cuisine)- and I’m not altogether sure why. I’ve read some places that the biggest difference is tahini is a paste made from the hulled kernels of sesame seeds, whereas sesame paste is made from grinding the entire seed, hull and all. Others say that tahini is made from raw sesame seeds, and sesame paste is made from toasted seeds. But whatever the reason, the two sauces are different. Sesame paste is stronger than it’s lighter tahini cousin, and I find the flavor to be more savory- while you could use tahini on these peas, I recommend checking your store for sesame paste first.

Looking for Sesame? Try one of these Sesame recipes!

• Crispy Sesame Spiced Tahini Quinoa
• Sesame Blistered Shishito Peppers
• Vegan Daylily Recipe: Simply Sautéed Daylily Shoots
• Massaged Mustard Greens Salad
• Spicy Vegan Cold Noodles, Sichuan Style

Making Sesame Roasted Snap Peas

Overall, these sesame roasted snap peas couldn’t really be much simpler- prep the peas, toss in the sauce and roast in the oven. When they’re cooked, add a few scallions on top and toss. Eat alone, or on the side of your meal. I almost feel the need to write more about these sesame roasted snap peas, but I’m going to stop myself -simple recipe, simple post.

Enjoy!

Sesame Roasted Snap Peas

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